Taiwan – 2.2.1 Taichung 台中
November 14th, 2008.
Categories: Eating..., Living..., Remembering...
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We boarded the train from Hsinchu 新竹 and then headed for Taichung 台中.
Taichung, the third largest city in Taiwan, is hardly a must see for the short term visitor, though many lo0ng term expats do enjoy it as a weekend getaway. The city has several pleasant tea and restaurant streets, an excellent science museum and a very good art museum, which includes a top-of-the-line storybook fantasy land library for children. Taichung is also a bright ray of sunshine (literally) on a dreary winter day for those living in the capital. Taipei and Taichung have very similar average temperatures but Taichung is much drier, receiving around 1700mm of rain a year compared with Taipei’s 2170mm.
Lonely Planet.
The train moved across various terrains, paddy fields, rivers, mountains, jungles, villages and cities. Eye pleasing indeed, if you ask me.
If you look closely at the picture below, you will see that the river’s water is actually grey in colour, far from being blue or crystal clear. I shall elaborate in details in future postings.
We arrived Taichung shortly and proceeded to find our hotel. The hotel, 瑞君商务旅馆, was recommended by a travel guide book that my mum borrowed for us. It is located just behind the train station, very convenient for us and most importantly, it has free broadband service.
That’s me, blogging.
The street in front of our hotel. On the left is our hotel and on the right is the train station.
We had our late lunch / tea at a cafe and restaurant opposite our hotel. Again, we ordered milk tea 奶茶.
After quenching our thirst, we walked to the next door’s restaurant to eat.
Braised minced meat with noodles 肉燥面.
Braised minced meat with rice 肉燥饭.
Pork rice with bamboo shoots 扣肉饭.
Beef dumplings 牛肉饺子.
Beef dumplings with soup 牛肉饺子汤.
After the heavy lunch / tea, we went back to our room for a good rest before heading out for dinner at a nearby night market 夜市, the Zhong Xiao Lu Ye Shi 忠孝路夜市. We had to walk the underground tunnel to go to the other side of the train station and then walk for another 500m or more to reach the night market.
Probably the busiest crossroad in Taichung.
While walking towards the night market, we made a stop at this particular bakery which is famous for its sunflower biscuits 太阳饼. Taiwan is actually famous for its sunflower biscuits and this particular bakery has been around for ages. We ended up buying almost five big boxes of the biscuits as souvenirs for friends and family in its Taipei branch.
We arrived at another big crossroad which is where the Zhong Xiao Road Night Market 忠孝路夜市 is located.
Now, that will be another post as there are quite a lot of food pictures.
Related posts:
- Taiwan – 2.2.2 Zhongxiao Road Night Market 忠孝路夜市
- Taiwan – 15.1 Taipei 台北 – Ximending 西门町 And 16.1 Going Back Home 回家
- Taiwan – 5.1 Alishan National Scenic Area 阿里山国家风景区, Chiayi 嘉義 And Kaohsiung 高雄
- Taiwan – 6.1 Kaohsiung 高雄
- Taiwan – 6.4 Kaohsiung Liu He Night Market 高雄六合夜市
November 14th, 2008 03:01
seriously, dun u feel stupid(no offense) carrying a laptop everywhere u go, esp in the mid of vacation?
vacation oso need blogging chatting surfing n stuffs? wow i cant imagine myself doing it.
November 14th, 2008 11:31
wow first time seeing beef dumpling. can’t wait to see more food pics from 忠孝路夜市, i bet there must be tonnes of good food
November 14th, 2008 12:30
Wow.. luv the night shot….
November 14th, 2008 18:27
i better go get some napkins before i drool all over my laptop…hehehehe.
November 14th, 2008 18:54
Sean, the extra 3kg to him is really nothing lah. LoL…
I found the foods there are not much different than ours woh.
November 14th, 2008 23:42
Sean : Haha. Its more of a need than necessity. With only two guide books, not knowing anything about Taiwan and yet to book any hotel, its wise that we brought our notebook along so that we can use the internet to save our asses. Haha!
Xin : Hehe. Its the same, just that, instead of pork, they used beef. No big deal.
Guccimamasan : Thanks!
Calvin : Haha. Don’t worry, the next post won’t be as bad as when I blog about Kaohsiung. LOL.
Bryan : When you are carry the notebook alone, that 3kg is nothing, not when you are carrying 9kg backpack and 4kg of camera. :P The food? Not much difference, its the taste.
November 15th, 2008 13:52
milk tea.. :D
November 15th, 2008 20:29
FUN? Absolutely yes, right?
I’ll go to Taiwan this coming holiday ye… And then, is your turn to tell me where to find 好料 le!!! Haha:D
The very sure thing is I’ll definitely go th Show’s fashion shop – Stage Hyaline of World… If the tour guide don’t decline my request. Hahaha…
November 15th, 2008 20:47
Did you go to 高美濕地? Sunset was picturesque there!
November 16th, 2008 01:31
Oh my god, one month dont come your blog (Busy Busy….)and when i come to your blog and saw u go to taiwan now, so jealousy….. need hurry finish study + collect $$$ and go there too
November 16th, 2008 18:37
Felicia : Yes, lots of milk tea.
Emerline : Yes, it was fun. Haha. Hope you will have fun in Taiwan and probably even bump into Show. Hehe.
Ven : Where is that? Haha. Obviously, no.
Dev : Haha. What are you so busy with? Yeah, took me some time to save the money too.
November 21st, 2008 02:51
It’s some marsh with wind turbines. It’s a good place to just chill out. Will talk about it when I start posting my taiwan journey (few months ago)
November 21st, 2008 02:53
Ven : Oh, looking forward.